Wartburg Sport 313/1 The icon of cars from the GDR and the crème de la crème for classic car collectors who have specialized in East German vehicles.
One of 469 Wartburg Castles ever built from the German Democratic Republic.

What do Otto Grothewohl and Karl Eduard Schnitzler have in common? That's right, both drove it, the Wartburg Sport.
In 1958 it was even recognized as the most beautiful European car at the New York Car Show in the USA.

The Wartburg 313 Sport is based on the Wartburg 311 but looks different in many ways, starting with the long bonnet, the side air intakes and overall it was a two-door coupe. The engine power of the Wartburg Sport was increased from 37 hp, as it was with the Wartburg 311, to 50 hp, so the sporty-looking Wartburg Coupé could reach a top speed of 140 km/h.

Only 469 Wartburg 313 Sport were built in Eisenach and Dresden. 143 cars were exported, some even to the USA.

In order to be able to shoot this video, I met up with the Wartburg professional Thomas again. He owns one of the very, very few Wartburg Sport.

The Wartburg Sport consists almost entirely of normal series parts from the 313. The newspaper "Deutscher Verkehr" praises the further development of the noble sports car from Eisenach, which "undoubtedly also made the car look better". "Our automotive industry should rely more on such creative forces," the newspaper recommended in the spring of 1959, when the production model of the 313/1 had just been awarded the title of "Most Beautiful European Car" in New York.

In addition to the immediately obvious shape, that of the Wartburg 313, which looks stretched forward and those gills on the side. That makes it special and exclusive, but what's different in general?